ELIRAD Report Summary

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ELIRAD (Everyday Life Radar Sensors For Transportation)

Reporting period:
2016-02-01 to
2017-01-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The ELIRAD project is driven by the vision of a high-resolution millimeter wave sensor for distance and speed measurements as miniaturized, highly integrated as possible.Silicon Radars sensor will be the world-wide first on the market realizing following features:- which is available to all requesting transportation customers- at real low cost- with real low power consumption property- miniaturized light-weight radar-sensor- providing excellent measurement accuracySilicon Radar sees a huge market potential while a large number of emerging applications sums up to the total market for Silicon Radars radar sensor. Silicon Radar aims to win a significant part of this total market. Because of that a short time to market has to be realized. ELIRAD targets a broad variety of applications.Extracted from the results already achieved during SUCCESS and subsequent contacts with customers the key market applications, that differentiates the radar sensor project and provides the highest added value for potential customers are:- Civil use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV´s)- Goods and medicament delivery also in indoor mode - Flying goods delivery at missing infrastructures after natural disasters- Emergency medical service drones (transport of defibrillators, safety buoys) also in indoor mode- Disaster observation (after earthquakes, nuclear disasters) also in indoor mode- Autonomous transportation systems (hospitals and logistic storage areas)- Heavy vehicles and special vehicles of agriculture (monitoring of supply for harvesters, 360° security systems for tooled construction machines)- Gesture based human-machine-interfaces in cars- Parking systems and municipal parking space management- Road and car park infrastructure for vehicle-to-infrastructure systems- Monitoring of number, position and life signs of car passengers within passenger compartment- Industrial robots (production and factory automation)- Domestic service robots (autonomous vacuum cleaners and mover robots)

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

WP1 Project coordination and financial managementThis work package deals with all the management aspects of the project and the monitoring of progress towards the ultimate objectives, identifying shortcomings and recommending remedial action where necessary. Especially inform everyone in the project about deadlines for deliverables and control the achievement of Milestones. Further the financial and human resources were controlled and accounted. The Coordinator coordinated all tasks according to the project plan. Risk management was coordinated by the project coordinator, but it was also done at each work package level and the risk report has been updated accordingly.WP2 Chip Design and initial batch manufacturingRS1 ChipThe final chip design of RS1 chip was manufactured at the wafer foundry IHP using an Engineering run with own mask set T330 (see D2.1).The chips of the Engineering run are used for package development and test development and chip qualification.First small batches, packaged and tested, showed already yields > 90%, which is a very good result for such new and complex chip and package application.After the package- and test development were finished, the qualification of the chip and package has been started. Please see description in next work package.RS2 ChipFirst samples of RS2 chip have been manufactured in the wafer foundry IHP using several Multi-Project-Waver-Runs (MPW) (see D2.3). Those samples have been used to develop the packaging concept of the IC. A few numbers of additional samples could be delivered by IHP out of MPW runs. In this way we could get more samples for package supplier comparison and evaluation. To earn a sufficient number of samples for chip qualification it is planned to start an engineering run with an own mask (plan: start in March 2017). WP3 Development Assembly ProcessRS1 in packageThe development of assembly process is finished and described in Deliverable D3.2.All processes are frozen, the process documentation and quality control at the supplier APC is defined and released.A first batch is manufactured for final qualification and the qualification has been started. Phase 1, 2 and 3 of qualification tests are passed successfully. The specified MSL-level III was reached as well as the early life failure rate criteria (ELFR). With these results the milestone “3.2 assembly RS1 qualified” is reached. Silicon Radar decided to keep the regarding Deliverable and Milestone open to proceed with phase 4 of qualification process. In this fourth phase it is planned to do additional stress tests to gather more data about chip robustness. This additional phase 4 is ongoing and will be finished end of July 2017 (for detailed description please see deliverable 3.2).RS2 in packageThe development of assembly process is ongoing, the specification is described in D3.3. The first step to evaluate the package type is done, standard QFN32, 5x5 mm² is defined and evaluated. Several runs were done in order to improve the wire bonding. A comparison of used standard molding components was done at 2 different package suppliers. It was found, that a standard molding component is applicable for the sensor application of RS2. There is no need for an advanced package as used for RS1. This makes the manufacturing of the sensor quite cheaper and it can result in good chances to come to the market fast and with higher volume. Silicon Radar has identified a significant risk to infringe third party rights with the current assembly concept of RS2. Silicon Radar defined all measures to mitigate this risk and to work around the protected assembly approach. The decision-making process regarding the risk mitigation measures is ongoing. The final assembly concept of RS2 is still not defined.WP4 Development Serial Test PlaceRS1The serial test is specified (see D4.1) and developed. After the test system was qualifies successful, the test system is in use for testing the qualification batches (See D4.2). WP5 Radar Sensor Module DesignRS1A first sensor module for the RS1 sensor evaluation was specified and the hard ware (PCB) manufactured and assembled (see D5.1). The software to demonstrate the functionality of RS1 is developed as well. Silicon Radar was able to use this kind of sensor module to show the possible functionality of the sensor to interested customers and to use it as demonstrator at exploitation actions like conferences and exhibitions. Two variants of the second generation of radar sensor were developed – the so called Easy Radar and Simple Radar modules.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)